The Guest: Aleppo-Istanbul Contends at the LET'S CEE Film Festival in Vienna

The Guest: Aleppo-Istanbul Contends at the LET'S CEE Film Festival in Vienna

With the attendance of superstar Saba Mubarak and director Anda├ž Haznederoğlu, The Guest: Aleppo-Istanbul will take part in the 6th edition of the LET'S CEE Film Festival in Vienna, Austria (13 - 22 April) within the LET'S CEE SCHOOL CINEMA programme.

Since 2012, Austria hosts the annual LET'S CEE Film Festival, exclusively featuring high-quality productions from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) including the Caucasus region and Turkey. The festival brings a wide range of cinematic masterpieces to Vienna and hosts a number of directors, screenwriters, producers, actors, cinematographers and other film experts from across CEE. Nearly all screenings are followed by Q&A sessions with the respective filmmakers, providing an unforgettable opportunity for the audience to gain personal understanding of a film and turn the visit to the cinema into a unique experience.

The Guest: Aleppo-Istanbul won the Best Feature Film Award and Best Editing Award, to Editor Ahmed Hafez, in the National Feature Films Competition of the International Bosphorus Film Festival. This is the film's second screening in Turkey after screening at the Antalya Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award. Most recently, the film was screened at the European Film Market (EFM) within the activities of the 68th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale).

Written and directed by Turkish director Anda├ž Haznederoğlu, The Guest: Aleppo-Istanbul stars Saba Mubarak and child Rawan Skeif, alongside a number of real Syrian refugees who are acting for the first time.

The film follows the journey of Lena and Meryem during their escape from the war in Syria. Lena is a ten-year-old girl who has lost her family in the war. She finds herself forced to make her way to Turkey with her baby sister and their neighbor Meryem, along with the other refugees. Lena wants to return home, while Meryem's hope is reach Europe.

The Guest: Aleppo-Istanbul is a co-production between the Turkish companies; Anda├ž Film Productions, Istanbul Digital (ID) and Istanbul Film Production (IFP); and the Jordanian company Pan East Media. The film project has received financial support from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. MAD Solutions is handling the film's distribution in the Arab world.

Star Saba Mubarak participated in many charity activities related to refugees. She attended a celebration held by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), where she delivered a speech about the refugee crisis in the Arab world. In her speech, Mubarak talked about the humane situations she experienced while shooting her new film The Guest: Aleppo-Istanbul.

Screening Times of The Guest: Aleppo-Istanbul at the LET'S CEE Film Festival in Vienna (GMT +1)Monday, 19 April at 09:00 am and 11:00 am at Village Cinema Wien Mitte